Dear friends of CRSM,
What a privilege it is to share our fiscal year 2024 Annual Report with you! CRSMis an incredible community of workersand learners, and I am both honored and humbled to represent them. As you will see in the pages to follow, we remain laser-focused on our three-fold mission: supporting our students to-and-through college, assisting them in becoming competent in the professional world of work, and challenging them to become persons of faith who strive for a more just world. Our students and alumni are out to make the world a better place for themselves, their families, and all of us. Follow some examples of their progress in the stories and pictures contained in this year’s report.
As my good friend, Fr. John Foley, SJ writes in the Cristo Rey Credo:
“Our world doesn’t need a touch-up. It needs total renewal.”
Our students’ accomplishments are even more impressive when you consider how challenging the educational environment is for a young person from our area. The most recent Illinois school report cards indicate that only 8% of North Chicago HS graduating seniors and 14% of Waukegan HS seniors enroll into a Bachelors’ program after high school. In contrast, 86% of CRSM seniors started matriculated to a Bachelors in 2024. Our Class of 2024 marked the fifth year in a row that 100% of CRSM seniors were accepted to at least one BA/BS program.
Driving positive change is hard work. It doesn’t happen overnight, and it doesn’t happen alone. Our success has always been a team effort – a collective success resulting from the hard work and generosity of so many people, including you! We couldn’t have come this far alone, and we can’t continue our mission without you.
Your support is more important than ever! Even though you are not physically in the hallways and classrooms on a daily basis, you are with us in spirit. You help us continue and extend our mission to more and more young people. By supporting our students, their families, and our community; you help us shape a world as it ought to be, not as it is.
The final line of the Cristo Rey Credo sums it up best:
“The Kingdom is coming and we are an essential part of the dream!”
Thank you for helping dreams come true.
Sincerely,
Preston Kendall
President of CRSM